Most South African entrepreneurs started their businesses not because of passion, creativity, or dreams of being their own boss. Most of them started their businesses because they were driven by responsibility, like stepping in to take care of the family or extended family members. This situation stems from overcrowded households, retrenchments, aging grandparents, unemployed siblings, and unending school fees, forcing one of the family members to step up and provide for everyone; hence, the emerging entrepreneurship. Most business owner stories in South Africa have nothing to do with dreams and ambition but everything to do with surviving poverty, resilience, and the pressure of extended family members depending on them. Not many entrepreneurs talk about these struggles, yet it is the reality for millions of people.
Struggles With Extended Family System
Extended family structure is still deep-rooted in South Africa. While most households worldwide are a nuclear family structure, South African households usually consist of parents, children, cousins, siblings, aunts, unemployed adults, and sometimes even neighbourhood children without proper homes. This system has been there from way back as far as apartheid, economic displacement, and broken generational wealth and is now still being carried into modern life today. Most cultures expect you to support your parents and siblings; it’s not so optional but more of a duty. This kind of expectation in this economy brings so much financial strain, especially when one employed family member is expected to cover groceries, school fees, transport money, electricity, medical costs, burial society contributions, and emergencies with one salary. That is how most individuals end up starting a side hustle or a business to ease the financial burden.
How Necessity Entrepreneurship Started
Struggling South Africans do not always have a plan for starting a business, starting a business is more solution based. They start with something as simple as selling fatcakes or doing people’s hair for money to make ends meet, then it grows to reselling clothes, printing labels, or doing deliveries, not because of passion but because they need the extra money for necessities.
A household with extended family members cannot be supported by only one salary. Realistically, a young woman in the township earning R8,000 with a take-home of R6,500 after deductions cannot afford to properly take care of herself and her family members. If her budget is R3,000 for groceries at home, R1,000 for school fees, and the remaining is for transport for work and siblings who need money, then she is left with nothing and can even borrow to balance the expense costs. The only escape from being in debt is to start a side hustle that can lessen the burden.
This is how thousands of micro-businesses like tuck shops, mobile beauty salons, thrift clothing sellers, car washes, catering and baking, online drop-shipping, hair and nail salons, and taxi or e-hailing vehicles started all over South Africa. Most of the entrepreneurs who started these businesses did that because of necessity and not luxury.
Financial Load Caused By Black Tax
The word “black tax” is used loosely as a joke, yet it is the main cause of deep emotional and financial burdens in many South Africans. Black tax has been affecting Black people’s homes because of historical injustices, but some South Africans also experience the same financial burdens in different ways. This black tax expectation forces people to come to terms with the fact that they can’t rely only on just a salary to survive; it’s impossible to save when everyone depends on you and that they don’t have the luxury of choosing slow-growing careers because of financial pressure. This is why the quickest solution would be starting a business because it can bring extra income for those extra expenses from family members.
Financial Freedom Through Entrepreneurship
With multitudes of South Africans struggling with stable income, entrepreneurship is not just an economic decision but an emotional one. Entrepreneurship helps financially struggling South Africans with breaking the cycle of parents retiring with no savings, younger siblings depending on the older ones for financial support, and children growing up without generational wealth.
Entrepreneurship becomes a solution to breaking the cycle for future generations not to go through the same financial burdens. If a family decides to start a small bakery business, it can be a sustainable business that feeds the whole family, including the extended family, and even grow into a franchise that paves a way for the younger generation. Opening a salon so that you can afford rent can also create employment for other family members and the community.
One struggling employed individual trying to feed her family can open a clothing resale business that can grow into a national brand while paying the bills. Entrepreneurship can be the fuel that builds wealth for the upcoming generation.
Societal Pressure
The pressure that comes with proving that you are “making it” in the community may not always be negative, as this cultural layer creates strong, determined business owners who try by all means not to fail and are also driven by responsibilities bestowed upon them. The community believes that success must be felt, the family must benefit from you having a job, and having a business not only represents you but your whole family.
Hidden Opportunities From Society Pressures
Although it’s overwhelming to start a business, it is beneficial because:
- It builds resilience, teaching how to stretch resources, manage risks, and adapt fast with limited resources.
- Brings the community together. Entrepreneurs in townships know that building trust and relationships with clients escalates sales through word of mouth.
- Businesses emerge to solve a problem experienced daily by real people.
- They start businesses that can evolve into future generational wealth.
Reasons Why So Many South Africans Start Businesses to Support Family
Most families, especially in townships and middle-class families, do not have any backup plan. They do not have any inheritance, trust fund, pension, or emergency savings.
Which means families end up putting all their hope on one family member who seems capable of taking them out of poverty. That one family member ends up starting a business out of responsibility, duty, and love for his or her family members to give them a sustainable lifestyle.
Conclusion
Most entrepreneurs in South Africa have started their businesses not out of passion but a mix of courage, necessity, and responsibility. People start businesses not only for profit but also to change their home situation and pave the way for the younger generation not to go through the same financial burden. These kinds of entrepreneurs deserve recognition, and their stories need to be heard to encourage others to step up and change their lineage and dream for generational wealth.
